The invention relates to a process for the removal from circulation of multi-trip bottles, in particular plastic multi-trip bottles. The invention also relates to a device for carrying out the process.
Particularly in the case of plastic multi-trip bottles, eg. PET bottles, whose life is limited, the problem arises that bottles coming to the end of their life need to be removed from circulation at the opportune time. This is important not only to prevent breakage or tearing of bottles while in use by the consumer, but also to avoid tearing or bursting of the bottle in the bottling plant during the refilling operation, in which each bottle is subjected to relatively high pressure. Hitherto, there has been no way of detecting the usual signs of damage due to fatigue - revealed in particular in the form of fine cracks of varying depth - in such a way that the end of the bottle's life can be reliably detected. In particular there has been no satisfactory way of determining the depth of the cracks.